Hours

Row

International Teacher Hourly Workload

Description

  Key to the importance of this data are the large differences between teacher responses to each of the prompts. As a stark example: In the USA, teachers report working an average (mean) of 28.9 hours teaching in the classroom each week. This estimate increases to 46.6 hours when teachers are asked to estimate their total number of job-related hours. This number jumps to 63.3 hours when weekly hours are calculated in the specific estimate prompt (summing reported hours from the 12-item list). Table 1 (featured below) reports each measurement method’s outcome by country, arranged from fewest to most total hours worked per week.
  Weekly workload of an internationally representative sample of teachers. Each teacher was asked to report the number of hours they worked during the last week using three separate prompts:

Hours in Classroom: How many 60-minute hours did you spend on teaching at this school during your most recent complete calendar week?*

General Estimate: During your most recent complete calendar week, approximately how many 60-minute hours did you spend in total on tasks related to your job at this school?*

Specific Estimate: Approximately how many 60-minute hours did you spend on the following tasks during your most recent complete calendar week, in your job at this school?*
+ How many 60-minute hours did you spend on teaching at this school during your most recent complete calendar week?
+ Individual planning or preparation of lessons either at school or out of school
+ Team work and dialogue with colleagues within this school
+ Marking/correcting of student work
+ Counseling students (including student supervision, mentoring, virtual counselling, career guidance and behaviour guidance)
+ Participation in school management
+ General administrative work (including communication, paperwork and other clerical duties)
+ Professional development activities
+ Communication and co-operation with parents or guardians
+ Engaging in extracurricular activities (e.g. sports and cultural activities after school)
+ Other work tasks

Country Data

Country Classroom Hours General Estimate Specific Estimate
Finland 20.31 32.50 35.55
Italy 16.34 29.28 37.42
Romania 16.17 32.28 38.74
Belgium 18.32 35.25 38.90
Netherlands 18.20 35.77 40.09
France 19.93 38.27 40.78
Norway 15.68 40.11 41.22
Estonia 20.24 34.53 41.30
Argentina 17.99 31.22 41.58
Denmark 19.38 38.87 41.59
Austria 19.04 37.02 41.89
Lithuania 18.39 34.62 43.40
Belgium-Flemish 22.82 41.02 43.95
Czech Republic 19.22 38.00 44.11
Sweden 18.29 42.32 44.21
Slovakia 20.05 35.98 44.30
Spain 21.04 35.91 44.45
Turkey 23.67 31.68 44.47
Croatia 19.14 38.97 44.48
Hungary 21.12 38.74 45.29
Latvia 21.02 35.20 45.56
Portugal 19.40 37.99 45.84
Cyprus 16.94 33.30 45.98
Georgia 18.57 25.57 46.08
Bulgaria 20.10 38.50 46.73
Brazil 20.26 28.86 46.80
Malta 18.77 36.45 47.90
Israel 21.60 32.63 48.34
Korea 19.50 33.24 48.44
Mexico 22.13 35.02 49.19
New Zealand 20.26 45.44 50.74
Slovenia 19.22 38.94 50.86
United Kingdom 21.23 47.46 52.01
Australia 21.36 44.41 52.16
Vietnam 18.69 44.53 52.46
China 17.37 39.40 53.20
Kazakhstan 16.08 48.93 54.14
Saudi Arabia 20.69 28.68 54.27
Japan 20.52 55.29 55.91
Canada 26.80 46.94 56.50
Chile 27.70 37.53 56.91
Singapore 17.87 45.57 57.47
United Arab Emirates 23.84 39.09 59.65
Russia 24.39 42.68 60.41
South Africa 25.60 36.18 61.56
USA 28.76 46.63 63.32
Colombia 26.84 40.16 64.69

Satisfaction

Row

Satisfaction

Description

How much do teachers regret becoming teachers? Higher scores reflect more regret.

Salary

Row

Salary

Description

Salary changes as documented by the department of labor statistics, documenting the changes in teacher salary between 1999 and 2016. All salary estimates were adjusted for inflation (i.e. all were put in 2016 dollars)